


pumpkins and spices (and witches and cats)

by fragileizy



Series: The Miraculous Server Prompt/Gift Series [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Autumn Fic, Demon Chat Noir, F/M, Magic and Spells, Marichat, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, author also wrote this and immediately considered publishing it instead of posting it on halloween, author wrote this instead of studying for a chemistry test that is in two days, demon chat au, demon!chat noir, halloween fic, some violence typical for the au, witchy!marinette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragileizy/pseuds/fragileizy
Summary: “What is this? This is so cool. Isn't this cool? The 'rats ass'? Can we get one?”“Please stop trying to get ‘the rats ass’ into an actual phrase,” Marinette rolled her eyes, smiling at Chat's prodding at the Jack o’ Lantern despite herself. He shifted the pumpkin on the pedestal, turning the large gourd in his hands easily like it didn't probably weigh half of Marinette's own weight. “And again, Chat, we don't have enough money for food, let alone money for a Jack o' Lantern.”They get one anyway.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: The Miraculous Server Prompt/Gift Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984180
Comments: 7
Kudos: 59





	pumpkins and spices (and witches and cats)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [creamikimi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/creamikimi/gifts).



> Hi! Happy Halloween!
> 
> This is a Demon Chat AU that the miraculous discord server I'm a part of created. Marinette is a witch who accidentally summoned a demon when she was spell casting, and she decided to keep him around. Chat Noir decided to stay, because Marinette was cute and interesting.
> 
> Lots of shenanigans (as well as an actual plot) ensue in the discord server. Link to it as at the end of this fic!
> 
> Happy reading!

Marinette stumbled, unbalanced, when Chat's cat form jumped off of her shoulder and onto the ground, transforming halfway over to a nearby shop. Green flames licked his body as he grew and shed his fur, skin shining in a blink of an eye. She shielded her eyes from the heat that his magic produced, but it warmed her, despite the chilly temperature trying to sink it’s way into her boots. Towering in size, Chat’s more-demon-than-human appearance was much easier to get used to after months of being around each other. What had confused her the most in the beginning was his choice of attire-- never suited for the weather that constantly plagued Marinette with chills-- a long sleeved tunic with the sleeves folded over and over themselves to show his forearms, a dazzling dark grey waistcoat with an embroidered gold tie. How this man didn’t freeze immediately being outside with his arms showing, it was gone to her. She rubbed at her arms as the flames disappeared and hissed off his body, missing the warmth already.

She watched him pace over to the opening of a shop across the street. Scents of bread and pastries wafted through the open window of the shop, Marinette immediately drawn to the idea. It’d been a while since she’d had bakery quality items in her stomach. She knew that Chat Noir didn’t have much standards to food, and always claimed that any food on earth was better than the food that was served in the underworld. But Marinette didn’t have such a drastic food change in her life, and as such, she missed her quality of food she used to eat. She missed her dad. What she wouldn’t give to eat one of his pain au laits.

She shook her head, more to herself then anything else. No. They couldn't afford any new food, even with Chat's tendencies to have sticky fingers-- and she scolded him for it, frequently, because Chat's inability to stop sinning was arguably hilarious-- but Chat argued that it wasn't illegal if he technically wasn't a person of the kingdom anyway so laws didn't apply. Whatever. “No-- no. We're not getting any food, kitty, we're almost broke.”

“No, no, not the food. Princess--  _ look,” _ Chat pointed to the large pumpkin with a face carved into it, decorating the front of the door to the bakery. Wider than tall, it was most likely a hefty price that the shop owner had paid to buy such a large pumpkin, and probably a lot more to get a really good carving into the pumpkin's skin. She was impressed with the size-- she'd never seen a pumpkin that huge before. Chat's cheshire grin widened, almost mirroring the face carved into it, eyes burning with delight. “What is this? This is so cool. Isn't this cool? The rats ass? Can we get one?”

“Please stop trying to get ‘the rats ass’ into an actual phrase,” Marinette rolled her eyes, smiling at Chat's prodding at the Jack o’ Lantern despite herself. He shifted the pumpkin on the pedestal, turning the large gourd in his hands easily like it didn't probably weigh half of Marinette's own weight. “And again, Chat, we don't have enough money for food, let alone money for a Jack o' Lantern.”

“This pumpkin’s name is Jack? How do you know? Are all pumpkins named Jack?” Chat’s face morphed into recognizable feline confusion, and he turned the pumpkin in his hands to look for a carved name on the side, debating on whether Marinette had come up with the term on the spot or knew some human lore he didn’t. Sometimes it still took her by surprise when he used his supernatural strength on mundane items. Marinette could tell that even while hollow inside, the pumpkin would be far too heavy for her to carry with both hands.

“The concept of putting candles inside a carved pumpkin is called a Jack o’ Lantern.” She explained, biting the skin on her finger, pondering where the actual name came from. She’d read something before about it, she was certain… “Have you never seen this in hell? I thought Plagg would have loved a festival about death and souls.”

Chat snorted. “We don’t really do much festivities down there. Not that we don’t like it, we just don’t have the time. Dad decorates, and goes to town on it, but we never have a feast like you told me we’re going to have this week. You wouldn’t believe just how much Mom and Dad have to work during the fall and winter months. Who would’ve guessed that humans die a lot when it’s cold out? Fickle little things, aren’t you?”

It sounded believable. If it wasn’t for Chat and his sticky fingers, Marinette herself could almost guarantee that she would probably be keeping a much  _ much _ closer eye on her dwindling pouch of coins on her belt. People didn’t purchase much spells and fortunes when it was winter and they needed the money for food and warmth. Although she was selling much of her fire potions-- thankfully a very easy potion to make since Chat Noir was a living furnace-- it still wouldn’t be enough to sustain her normally. Without having a demon helping her, she probably would’ve been much thinner around the waist. She hated that he was right. It was a shame that many people didn’t have money or tangible wealth to survive the bitter cold. As much as she hated the stealing, she recognized that without it she would probably be hungry a lot more than they were now.

“Ah yes. ‘Mom and Dad’ making sure that humanity gets sorted into their correct location after their death, so they didn’t have time for little Chat to have a halloween. Sounds believable.” She liked teasing him about it, liked seeing the way his eyes glinted with mischief whenever she insinuated that his parents weren’t infact gods, and that he had been completely bluffing the entire time.

“You know Princess, one of these days they’re going to come here to say hello and you’re going to be very upset that you didn’t believe me.” His ears twitched, black little triangles against the messy head of golden hair.

“I’m sure I’ll beg on my knees for forgiveness when that happens.” She laughed to herself, stepping to the side when a customer of the shop attempted to pass. She sobered, going back to the topic at hand. “Come on, let’s go home.”

“We can’t take this with us?” Chat frowned.

Marinette shook her head. “It’s not ours. We didn’t pay for it.”

“Oh right. Well, in that case-- I have an idea,” Chat's tail flicked behind him, blackened fingers tapping along the pumpkin's skin. She could see unfolding right in front of her-- ideas and theories spewing their way through Chat's head, magic and pyromaniac tendencies clouding his better judgement. His ears twitched in excitement at the thoughts he was formulating, and her magic ached at the diabolic scent that perforated the air. The scent was familiar, a concoction of aptly convenient cinnamon and pine, with a hint of something otherworldly. Her magic immediately reacted with it, rushing out of the joints of her bones and forcing itself to her palms, ready to perform any negation spells against her other half’s.

She shook her head instead, nipping his plans in the bud with a simple sentence. “Nope. Absolutely not.”

Chat Noir sputtered, eyes electric green. “Oh-- oh come on. You don't even know what it is.”

Marinette rolled her eyes again, placing her empty hand on her hip, gesturing him back to her with the other. She tried forcing her magic back, feeling the rising tension between their two auras attempting to push back on each other. Chat Noir was made entirely of magic, so it wasn’t as easy for him to pull back when it started. She turned from the shop, belly aching for fresh bread, and started to walk. “Do I need to? I don't have to hear it to know what it is. I know you well enough. We don't have time to go to the pumpkin patch and I certainly don't have time to help you steal one of these. I'm an honorable woman of society.”

“Honor doesn't pertain to pumpkins.” Chat humphed, crossing his arms across his chest, pouting to himself like a scolded child. At her lack of response, he sighed, defeated. He followed behind her, ears droopy and shoulders down, as they finished walking the street back home. Marinette almost felt bad, if she hadn't already known that they were somehow going to end up with a pumpkin in their shop anyway. “I  _ was _ going to pay.”

“With what money, my dear little kitty? We're broke!”

“Money I was going to steal.” Chat muttered under his breath.

Marinette almost barked out a laugh, smothering her humor with a hand over her mouth, ducking her head in embarrassment as other villagers passed. Her negation hadn’t been a hard block for Chat Noir, who was bound to listen to her via the contract that decorated her two ears. Simply a soft block. She hadn’t ordered him to not steal the pumpkin, but better judgement had thankfully passed through the slippery slope that was his brain. Marinette laughed quietly to herself, knowing that her poor choice of negation would absolutely come back later to bite her in the butt. Before the festival, Marinette would have a Jack o’ Lantern outside her door. She was certain of it.

  
  


Two days. Two days before Marinette was about to burst at the seams with Chat Noir impatiently waiting for her to say yes to getting a new pumpkin.

To be fair, she’d noticed his antsy pacing across the floor of the shop, the small black cat doing it’s best to pace along the floor, bushy tail flicking as he thought. But other than that, he’d been silent, taking frequent naps and playing with the cork bottles when awake, never giving anything away. Marinette sighed at him, petting stray hairs that stuck to her face back into her braid. Regardless of the lack of conversation or him ever voicing what was on his mind, it didn’t take much for her to figure it out. She’d never seen a cat do it’s own version of tapping their feet on the floor impatiently before.

“Chat.” She rolled her eyes, lifting her hands off of the large cauldron ladle, using a palm filled with magic to continue stirring as she searched the store shelves for the next ingredient. She liked alphabetical order organization, but it was almost always impossible to find what she needed when she forgot the name of the item. Maybe she should’ve taken the advice from Chat and should have instead separated the items by potion uses. It was too late for that now.

Chat meowed by her ankle, cocking his head to the side. She reached down to scratch behind his ear, smiling despite herself as Chat’s eyes closed in happiness. She wiped away at a stray lint that got caught in his whiskers, bending down at his level to pet him with both hands. Her magic pulsed in her left hand, still stirring the cauldron across the shop. Chat’s eyes rolled and his little body shivered at the feeling of her magic thrumming through her hand, mixing with his only at the spots she petted him on. A little tiny cat massage.

“Are you still thinking about the pumpkin?” She laughed, taking a look back at the shelf. If only she could find the ingredient she needed.

Chat meowed back.

“Could you do me a favor and look for the fire lily for me, kitty? It’s been pickled, so it should be swollen in a jar.” She moved her hands to the approximate length of the bottle, moving again to give him one last little pet. She couldn’t contain herself from petting him, and she was lucky that he loved it. He was just too tiny and cute when he was in this form. “About this big? I can’t find it anywhere. Stop looking at me like that, I know you’re complaining about the alphabetical order.”

Chat sneezed. He took his time walking through the shelves of the shop, and marinette watched him disappear around the corner. She went back to her cauldron, a large earthen pot that cooked over a flame that was encased in fireproof wood. She’d learned her lesson last time by leaving her flame out in the open, and the poor lining of her dress had paid the price for it. It took over a day of stitching to get the hemline of her dress back into an appropriate shape. She went onto the next step of the recipe, preparing the next ingredient to be put in after Chat brought back the lily, and was reaching for the string to tie the herb together when the door to the shop opened.

“Oh! Hello there!” Marinette called, stepping up to the counter to look at whoever had entered. She smiled at a young lady who came by, holding her swollen coin purse by the string. Her hair was held back by a simple net, her clothes plain and apron covered in flour. Her purse matched the color of her dress, a lovely pale green color with swirls of pink flowers. Simplicity defined this young lady, but she held an elegance to her. “Are you here to pick up an order?”

“No, I--” The lady smiled, albeit nervous, shifting from foot to foot on the lush rug Chat had ‘borrowed’ from a shop owner after they had helped with their flooding problem. She had learned that day that demon cats could in fact swim-- even if they hated doing it. Chat had moaned about the unnecessary bath for weeks. “--Are you the shop owner?”

“I am.” Pride swelled in Marinette’s chest. “What can I help you with?”

“Oh good! I’m sorry to come by without an order, though now that I see your fortune charms I might take one... I just wanted to give you this.” She opened the coin purse that wound around her wrist, popping open the pinch lock and gave Marinette a small parchment rolled and tied with a little bow. Marinette thanked her, unrolling the paper on the counter, searching for a paperweight near the register to keep the parchment from rerolling. She placed a small crystal at the top of the paper. “I heard you and your familiar talking a couple of days ago. About pumpkins. I’m the shop owner of the bakery.”

Marinette knew that Chat was hearing the conversation, and he wasn’t that far away. She snickered to herself about his probable petulant wining to himself about being called a familiar-- not that he hated the word, per se, but it made him look and feel useless in the public eye. He’d complain about it to her later. Marinette read the lovely handwriting on the paper, eyes wide at the mention of a discount. She glanced back at the customer. “Oh, I see! I love the Jack o’ Lantern you bought. It fits with the store exceptionally well. Did you do the carving yourself?”

The lady smiled, “I’m glad you liked it! Your familiar seemed to like it as well. I’m not much of a carver, I’m not very good with knives, but I did my best. Lots of people have complimented on the face, though. I brought over a coupon for you to use at the place we got the pumpkin. They’re having a sale where if you give them that paper, it’s a flat price. You pay for a pumpkin, but get to choose whichever one you want. If you’d like to get a bigger one, I can ask my husband to come with you and we could bring the cart and we could try to get a larger one…”

Marinette’s heart warmed at the idea of someone coming by with such generosity. “Thank you, ma’am. That’s really kind of you. But I don’t think a cart would be necessary.”

“Will you look for a smaller one?” She looked surprised at her statement. “I had assumed you would use the seeds for harvest spells afterwards. Do you have a lot of them, already?”

Aha! Marinette  _ knew _ she had forgotten about the pumpkin seeds and their potency in spells. They might have even a better chance of making the potion she was brewing even easier. She made a mental note to put that in the spell, glancing back to the cauldron that spit and spewed traces of liquid on the sandy floor where she worked. “No, no. I’ll be getting a big one. My familiar can carry a lot more weight than he lets on.”

The lady gave a soft ‘oh!’ when Chat Noir jumped up on top of the counter, a watery flower stem with succulent red petals in his mouth. Chat tried meowing, but couldn’t with the stem in his mouth. He deposited it at his feet, taking a paw to his mouth and licked. “Is this him?”

“It is!” Marinette beamed again, chest filled with pride. She gave Chat Noir a pet on his forehead, and he mewed again. “Ohoho. Thank you for finding my fire lily for me, little kitty. I hope you put the lid back on the jar so they don’t dry out.”

As much as she loved the flower in its original, beautiful form, she needed to pick the petals off and string the flower. The beautiful pods of pollen, swollen with water, hung heavy from their own weight. She took a pod between her two fingers, rubbing it against the pad of her thumb, pleased with the red paste that the pollen gave off. She took a clean bowl from underneath the counter, and a pestle, picking one orange petal off the flower at a time, grinding the entire bud into a paste. She put a dot of the paste on Chat’s paw, and he quickly lapped at the area, purring a thanks for the little treat.

The lady interested Marinette, in the way she didn’t feel fear when meeting Chat Noir. Even while in this small form of his, people who didn’t use or hold magic still felt a bit of claustrophobia from being too close to Chat Noir. People had innate fear being around someone who had spent any amount of time in the underworld. Their magical scent changed permanently forever, and magic users always felt discomfort near them. Non magic people could only feel a sense of barely-perceptive dread, according to a couple of customers who had voiced their confusion to her whenever Chat Noir was nearby. Marinette never felt the fear they spoke about-- not only because she was a magic user herself, but because she was Chat Noir’s equal. She assumed it was on the basis of being able to cancel each other’s powers out. Marinette gestured to the paper on the counter with the same finger that had dotted his paw, Chat’s head tilting to pay attention to what she was pointing at. “Look at this, Chat. She brought us a discount for the pumpkin patch. We can get our own now, if you’d like.”

Chat meowed happily.

“So. The largest one I can carry.” Chat mused to himself, searching over Marinette’s shoulder to locate the biggest in the pumpkin patch.

“The largest you can  _ reasonably _ carry. I don’t want you to get cramps.” Marinette followed him through the farm and the endless rows of orange. She’d been surprised to hear that the pumpkin patch had been so much closer to their shop than anticipated-- a short walking distance that didn’t require the use of a horse or wagon to get to. The short hike up the half mountain had been good exercise, but not hurtful enough to cause any cramps in her feet. They’d watched the sunrise together on that hill, and Chat Noir was ecstatic to see the sunrise so clearly for the first time since his bringing to the overworld. She hadn’t even known that there was a farm nearby-- she had never been to this side outside of town before. It was the opposite direction from the river that was used to export goods.

Before she could warn him of the minor pain he was about to receive, Marinette winced at Chat who walked through the rows diagonally, and had to resist the urge to roll her eyes as he yelped in pain. “Ow-- what the--”

“Pumpkins have thorns on their vines.” She called out to him, gingerly stepping over large patches of thorns to keep up with him. She gathered her skirts into both of her hands, wary not to fall over. “Try not to get any stuck in your tail or paws!”

“Couldn’t you have told me this  _ before _ I hurt myself?”

“I could’ve. But I’ll just heal your wounds now and let you figure out the rest yourself.” She wiped her hands clean on her apron, tucking herself further into her jacket. The chill was so much harder to bear out in the open with no structures to keep the wind from cutting through her. But she could feel the sun warming up the earth around her, Tikki’s spirit of life coursing through every little fibre of grass. Deep cleansing breaths filled her chest with good spirit, her magic thrumming in her arms.

Chat Noir flicked his tail apprehensively, wary of his next steps on the dirt paved field, still searching the seemingly endless rows for the largest pumpkin he could find. Marinette scanned too, tucking stray hairs back into her pleated hair when a bit of wind passed by them. Marinette’s body twitched at the aura that carried in the wind, magic taut in her palms. “Do you smell that?”

“No.” Marinette murmured back, suddenly not feeling cold anymore. “But I do feel it.”

Chat Noir’s nose twitched, standing up straight to his full height, coming back close to Marinette. She had been under the impression that they had been the only ones in the pumpkin patch, and although the pumpkins were large, it was easy to look over them to see no one around. Staying at the top of the hill and looking down towards the pumpkins made it easy to see the rest of the field as well, so she wasn’t sure where the aura was coming from. There  _ was _ nobody around. Chat Noir’s ear twitched to the side, and his head soon followed, searching the area. Marinette’s nose scrunched at Chat’s magic starting to surface, her own magic subconsciously pooling to the forefront of her fingertips. Chat Noir was reacting to something.

“What do you see, kitty?”

Chat’s hypnotic eyes narrowed in the direction he had turned to. He sniffed the air again, tail slashing behind him. “I don’t see him. But it’s not a human. I think I smell a demon. It’s not a scent I’ve ever smelled before-- I think they’re trying to hide their scent but messed up the spell.”

“In-- in the pumpkin patch?” Marinette startled. What was a demon doing in a pumpkin patch? Had they hurt unsuspecting humans before them? “What do they want?”

“I’m not sure. Want me to go check on my own?”

“Absolutely not. We’re a team. We go together.” As much as she dreaded getting into fights, she knew that she had to be there to balance out Chat Noir’s energy. Once started, the demon would absolutely get carried away with whatever he was doing. She’d learned her lesson with the chickens and the sparring match with Alix. Her poor little hens. Chat Noir loved them too, she knew that, but he tended to get tunnel vision when he was in fights. “I don’t see the demon at all, but I can definitely feel him around here somewhere.”

“I don’t think you’re going to like this, but I’m pretty sure the demon is hiding as one of these pumpkins.” Chat sighed.

“You’re joking. There’s a million of them around here!”

“I wish I was, Princess.” He smiled briefly, pity on his face. “This might take a while. Do you just want to leave?”

She shook her head. “No, of course not. We need to find him and make sure he’s not causing any trouble. We don’t want any humans getting caught in this, they might get really upset and cause problems for you in the future. I’d rather not be kicked out from another town because of demons, thank you.”

Chat shrugged, unworried, but linked him arm with her’s anyway. “Suit yourself. Come on, come this way. Let’s stay up wind to make sure our scent doesn’t hit him. If he scents me, he’ll poof immediately.”

“Are you that much of a big deal in the underworld?”

“You just love to forget that I’m the son of the king, don’t you?” He smirked, helping her with her footing across the thorny rows. “If that demon finds out I’m Chat Noir before he starts the fight, he'll disappear. If I see his face, he’s going to only have one option-- which is to fight me and win-- or Plagg will make sure he’s punished.”

“If we get him and win, he’ll go back to the underworld?”

“Maybe, if he wants to go lick his wounds after the battle alone. He might just go to a different town if we don’t seal him back. Give him a little stamp of Chat Noir, just to make sure dad catches wind of his loss and makes sure that he’s properly dealt with.”

“Wait, but--  _ but-- _ the demon hasn’t done anything wrong, technically. We don’t know if he’s injured any humans. What if he’s not here to hurt anyone? What if he wanted a Jack o’ Lantern?”

Chat Noir stopped at that, turning to Marinette, shaking his head. He placed his hands on her shoulders, making sure to look at her directly in her eyes. “I wish that were the case. But demons are always here to do mischief. And it’s not always the good kind.”

Marinette blushed despite herself, not used to being this close to him. “Ah.”

“I don’t know who contracted a demon, or tried to, but we want to at least make sure that he’s contracted. If he isn’t, we send him back.” Chat Noir glanced to the many pouches on Marinette’s belt. “You’re going to want to get your chalk ready to open up a portal.”

“And if he’s contracted?”

“Then we give him a good scare, make sure he understands that the both of us live here and that if he’s here to damage the village in any way we’ll make sure he’s not able to, and stamp him anyways just to make sure.” He nodded more to himself, ears shifting to keep track of the demon down below. Marinette still couldn’t spot the demon, but she didn’t need eyes to feel her magic reacting with the danger. Chat swerved them both as another wind picked up and carried more aura in their direction, pointing to a specific pumpkin with his blackened fingers. “There. That one.”

Marinette pushed her magic out of her palms, encasing the area around the three of them with a fire-protective barrier. The look in her pyromaniac Chat’s eyes made it certain that they would be needing it. Chat Noir nodded at her, and dropped into a crouch, tail flicking wide behind him. He pounced towards it, and slammed into an invisible force just before reaching the pumpkin. He rolled, a heavy weight turning the both of them to the ground, and Chat Noir punched what Marinette presumed to be the jawline of the other demon. They phased into view, and Marinette tried not to gasp at the sight.

Marinette had never met another demon before. The sight and scent of the intruder hit her in a rush, and her knees wobbled at the disgust that formed tight in her chest. A massive, dripping, blackened body-- the demon was more fog than an actual form. Larger than Chat ever was, the demon was almost the size of a house or shop, and she could faintly see the outline of the trees behind him through his body. Puffs of smog fell off the demon in clumps, hitting the floor and pluming into a fine mist over the area. The surrounding foliage wilted under the scent of death, turning the green grass into decayed earth. 

A long, swiping tail, and two vaguely shaped downturned ears were all that Marinette could recognize as being from an animal-- the six thin limbs on his body catching Marinette off guard. The demon’s mouth opened wide to reveal a lavender tongue, and endless rows of teeth, saliva slobbering over Chat. The demon scuffled with Chat Noir, one of it’s six paws swiping for Chat’s face. 

Regardless of the size disparity, Chat Noir kept up with the demon’s weight as if he actually weighed nothing, struggling only because of the magic. Chat Noir smirked at the demon, even with a paw the size of his arm pining his throat down. “I wasn’t expecting to find you out here. Good job hiding your scent out here, I barely recognized you.”

“Has the king sent his own to spy on me?” The demon yipped crudely, Marinette only catching bits of his words in between growls. Marinette used one of her hands to push a second spell, one that was good for controlling fog. She’d never tried it on an actual being before, since fog and mist weren’t real living things, but she attempted a solid try anyway. She almost cheered as she caught him in the invisible bubble. The demon yipped again, his body convulsing under the weight of the spell, his back bending in like he was heaving, and Chat knocked him to the ground with a grunt. The demon the size of a house sprawled against the floor, dirt kicking up around the two of them and bathing them all in dust. Marinette tried not to choke, blinking hard to stay focused enough to keep the barrier up.

“Sorry. My dad has better things to do than to spy on his war dogs,” Chat Noir swatted him, yowling in pain as the demon’s teeth gouged into his arm. Green blood gushed down his hand and down his claws, painting the dirt sage. Chat hissed, his empty blackened hand gripping the demon’s head with force, trying to push up and out the demon’s jaw.

A fog-dog demon. How fitting. Marinette could barely hold her hands in the spell, and quickly changed to shielding the surrounding areas again with both hands when Chat Noir sparked his fingers, emerald fire fulminating inside the barrier with a crack. Marinette flinched at the heat of the fire, but steadied herself to keep the barrier up. The dog, not weighed down by Marinette’s spell, licked his wound.

“Lovely little human girl you’ve got over there.” The dog demon chuckled, head low and tongue licking his muzzle clean of green blood. Marinette still couldn’t get over the size of the beast-- she would fit cleanly into the beast’s mouth with no need to curl up. He dodged the fire that exploded from Chat’s hand, and Chat’s hands ran through a series of runes to expand his firing range. “Do you smell her fear, little champion? Is it not intoxicating? Rumors have it that whoever finds her first could become the next champion. Maybe it could be me.”

Chat growled, deep into his chest. Marinette had never heard his voice get that deep before. Octaves lower than she’s ever heard. She got closer, despite her fear, shrinking the barrier around them to get smaller, trapping heat and energy in the bubble. Chat’s teeth poked through between his snarling lips, sharp enough to tear flesh. “I knew I hated dogs for a reason.”

Marinette blasted another fog containing spell, forcing the container this time to be smaller in size. The demon dodged it by rolling, quick on his feet for someone with so many limbs. He lunged for her, growling and snapping his jaw in her direction, and Marinette spun out of his way with a barely-contained scream. Her braid missed the snap of his teeth by seconds. She pulsed another containing spell, trying again, slamming him up against the barrier she created as hard as she could, boots sinking into the dirt from the weight of the magic. Her shoulders curled in as she struggled to hold the massive beast up against the barrier, once again realizing for the second time in a week that Chat Noir’s strength was always supernaturally stronger than it appeared.

“Marinette, you’re going to want to draw that sigil in,” Chat Noir glanced back towards her, slamming his shoulder into the demon’s side. The dog howled in pain, curling on his side. Strained against the barrier and the container, lavender blood spewed from the foggy demon and onto the floor, mixing with Chat Noir’s green. Marinette shuddered with the demon, grappling with the dog’s form to stay contained. She curled her fingers, shrinking the container even smaller, desperate to keep ahold of the massive weight.

“I-- I can’t do that! If I let go of the barrier, or him, he’ll flee!” Marinette grunted as Chat continued to pummel the demon. The dog demon bit into his other arm, and Chat sank his own teeth into the area of his throat, a small bite mark compared to the giant hole that had been left in Chat’s right bicep. Chat Noir stifled another yell into the mist flesh of the dog demon, the sound ethereally dark and desperate-- otherworldly, ironically. Chaotic and harrowing. It sounded like he was going to transform into something.

“I’ve got him.”

“Chat!”

“Marinette-- you’re just-- going to have to trust me,” Chat Noir’s fire blasted from his blackened hands, and the dog continued to howl. Chat’s hypnotic green eyes turned to her, wild and strained. “Turn around and write the rune! Don’t look behind you. We’ll be fine.”

Marinette pushed the dog demon into the barrier one last time, squeezing him as tight as possible with her last remaining strength. She let her magic stir in her palms, letting go from both spells, and the dust inside the bubble scattered across the hill. Marinette coughed into her sleeve, searching the many pouches on her belt for the sigil chalk, keeping her back turned to the fight behind her. Chat Noir had asked her to turn around, and she’d do what he asked. The contract didn’t go both ways, but he had never begged for her to do anything before. This was new.

Waves of heat warmed her back as Chat’s fire mushroomed up into a ball of gas, and Marinette hunched forward along the dirt, knees injured from the hardened earth. Her magic blistered in her body, stirring wildly in her joints, cold and rushing throughout the entirety of her body for protection. That was new, too. The sounds of shrieks and howls filled the air as well as the sound of snapping jaws, black mist coating the earth.

Marinette ignored the burning of her earlobes while the fight behind her escalated, the smell of demon blood taring the air around them. She drew the portal rune on the floor with shaky hands, the sigil chalk dusty and cracking between her fingers. Looping circles, writing symbols that she had had little practice with, she winced at her mistakes in the dirt, praying that she was writing them well enough for the spell to cast. 

Four dashes, then eight-- three circles, then seven-- curving her symbols and making sure to dot the chalk in the right places, she looked down to her Tikki fortune spell. A perfect half circle. She took the final step in one full sweep, curving left instead of right for the perfect flaw in the spell. Plagg’s rune. A portal directly to Plagg’s throne room-- the same sigil that she had accidentally written months ago, the one that had sent Chat Noir tumbling out of. She hoped she could send things back through the same portal.

Marinette coughed harder into her elbow. “It’s--  _ Chat-- _ It’s ready!”

A kick-- or a punch-- sent the dog demon sprawling towards her side. Another burst of Chat’s fire, and Chat Noir lunged at the demon again, wrestling and grappling with his six limbs to force him close enough to the portal. The dog demon laughed, weakly, two of his paws broken and lavender blood everywhere. “Are you ashamed of your form, champion?”

“Shut up.” Chat Noir wiped emerald blood from his eyes with a tattered sleeve.

“You hide it from the girl.” The dog demon’s laughter deepened. “A very interesting weakness to have.”

Marinette pushed her magic into the rune portal, not needing Chat’s permission to know that it was time to send the demon home. The chalk she drew into the dirt glowed blinding white, bright even against the full morning sun, and the sound of a bell rang across the field as the portal opened. Marinette forced the portal open as wide as possible, a pit in the ground with absolutely no color. Chat Noir grabbed the demon by the neck, his blackened hands digging into the fog. He hoisted the massive dog over his broad shoulders-- comical, if it wasn’t for the severity of the situation-- and slammed him on top of the portal. The earth shook from the impact, and if Marinette hadn’t been kneeling, she would’ve buckled. The dog didn’t fit into the hole, too large to curl in. The dog howled regardless. Marinette winced. “Chat, I can’t force the portal any more open then it is now.”

“Oh don’t worry, Princess. I have an idea for this.” Chat Noir smirked. He slammed his foot down onto the body of the dog demon, forcing his weight to sink the demon into the pit. He grinned at Marinette, hair and eyes as wild as the day she’d met him. Marinette could do nothing but smile back, albeit nervously. “Just a good ol fashioned shove will send him through. Send my regards to dad, won’t you, wardog?”

“Piss off.”

“I’m sure Plagg will love hearing what happened to you in this state. You’ll be cleaning the throne room free of your pungent blood for the rest of eternity.” Chat barked a laugh. The dog disappeared through the portal with one last kick of Chat’s heel, pockets of mist and cloud spreading across the dirt floor in a final attempt to escape. Marinette shuddered as the mist carried over her hands, disappearing into the air, her palms lifting off the ground and closing the portal. Leftover magic sat at the back of her hands, spinning and swirling like wind, adrenaline still coursing through her veins. Chat sat on the patch of dirt beside her with a huff, licking at the wound that had shredded his shirt sleeves. “Man, that was a fight I was not expecting to have this soon.”

Marinette pocketed the sigil chalk, hands weak and overspent. She reached for the small vial of salve she carried with her, and shuffled on her knees to reach Chat Noir. Her apron was ruined with dirt and mud. Chat Noir’s wardrobe would probably have to be stitched back together, although she would rather get him an entire new outfit. Chat Noir watched her with slow eyes, watched her pull out her handkerchief from another pocket, and smear salve over an edge.

“What are you doing?”

“Healing your wound.” She muttered, barely having the strength to hold Chat’s arm back as he flinched from the pain when she pressed the cloth to the bite marks.

“Don’t be ridiculous, heal your’s first, Marinette. I can-- ow--  _ ow-- heavens that burns-- _ I’ll heal in a couple of days.” He hissed at the pain.

“It’s too late, you big baby. I’m already doing it. Besides, I’m not bleeding.”

“Says who?” He touched her face with his palm, swiping with his thumb under her eye. Careful with his claws, he pulled back to reveal red on his blackened fingers, licking it to get a taste. “You cut yourself on the cheek.”

“When did-- how--” She frowned, pressing the cloth harder into his wound. Chat’s face twisted up. “He never managed to hit me.”

“Good thing, too. One wipe of that paw of his and you’d be dead.” Chat Noir shrugged, trying to pat her hands away. “And as much as I’d love to have an eternity to spend with you in the underworld, I don’t think you’d even go there after death. We’d have to send messenger pigeons back and forth between us if you went to the overworld. But I guess you must have gotten the cut from the thorns of the pumpkins around here.”

Marinette tried not to think about the near-death experience too much. Whether it was adrenaline, or anxiety, it was easy for her to place the fight into a small box in her mind and try not to think of it ever again. “S-speaking of, are we still going to get a pumpkin?”

“Are you kidding? Absolutely! Super cool rat’s ass fight with a wardog or not, I came here for a Jack o’ Lantern. And I’m leaving with one, too.” Chat Noir quieted, ears flat, taking in Marinette’s demeanor. “Marinette? Princess? You okay?”

Marinette swallowed. “I’m fine. I’m okay. Everything’s fine.”

“Doesn’t look like it. You look ready to pass out.” He frowned.

“I’m just a little bit shaky from the fight, that’s all. Are-- do all demons look like that?”

Chat Noir’s tail flicked behind him. He looked deep in thought. “Some of them. Not all of us look like that, though-- very few demons have that form. Those types of demons are known as wardogs-- they’re the equivalent of generals in the overworld. He’s one of the lowest ranks of generals the underworld has. I guess he was just looking for a way to rise in the ranks. But usually demons look the way I do, unless you’re special. Did the sight of him looking like that scare you?”

“The six legs was something, for sure. He was huge--  _ heavens-- _ I really didn’t-- I wasn’t expecting to fight a demon today. And so big too. Wow. The size of a house, right? So many teeth in his mouth. That was-- that was very dangerous, wasn’t it?” Anxious laughter bubbled in her, her grip on his bicep getting tighter despite herself.

“Hey.” He turned to her fully, whatever he had been thinking completely wiped from his face. “Princess. It’s okay. You didn’t get hurt at all during the fight, right? Well, besides the scratch on your face, but that wasn’t from him. It’s okay. You’re safe. If I had thought at all during that fight that we wouldn’t be able to handle it, we would’ve gone home, and I would’ve sent a letter back home. I wouldn’t put you in danger like that.”

“Right. Right. You’re right.” She exhaled, flipping the handkerchief in her hand to get a clean edge and wiped his cauterizing wound free of any more green blood. She smiled genuinely. “Thanks, kitty.”

Marinette tried not to wince at the pumpkin slamming into the counter, Chat Noir not realizing the actual weight of what he carried. “One pumpkin.”

The farmer scratched his beard, giving the two of them a glance over. Didn’t they look like a funny pair! Marinette had tried fixing her braid again after the fight, and tried cleaning up her apron with a quick mending spell, but her magic refused to budge. As a result, the spell had botched-- and while the top half of her apron looked spotless and starched, the bottom half looked like it had gone through a meat grinder. Her magic refused to leave her joints now, no matter how much she coaxed them. She must be exhausted without even realizing it-- energy and magic too spent for her to do anything but rest.

Chat looked about the same-- sans the magic situation. Sleeves in tatters, holding to the rest of his shirt by sheer will, his dark waistcoat stained hypnotic green and lavender. The smell of demon blood perforated the air around him-- caught like a dog rolling in mud and tracking it everywhere in the house. Marinette had half a mind to at least try to tame the mane of golden hair on top of his head, but knew it wouldn’t do much for his appearance.

Chat’s magic pushed lightly against her’s, probing the area for a response to her’s. It was rare that her magical reserve ran out, and every single time it happened Chat’s own magic seemed to be searching for her. She assumed it was because the companionship between the two auras was always pleasant, that without her it felt hollow.

“We took care of your demon problem.” Marinette voiced into the silence, shifting on her feet in nervousness, trying to explain why they looked the way they did.

The farmer’s eyes widened. A semi-old man in his late fifties, his beard and hair was more salt than pepper. Leathery skin dotted with years of working hard in the sun, the man aged well. He sat on the stool behind the counter, most likely too fatigued to be standing for large periods of time while waiting for people to show up and buy pumpkins. Marinette didn’t blame him-- there had been no one out there the entire morning that her and Chat Noir had looked for the perfect one. It was a miracle she didn’t try to convince Chat that the pumpkin he had decided to take home was too big. “Demon? So it really was one?”

“You knew he was there?” Chat Noir frowned.

The farmer had the right mind to look embarrassed, leathery skin turning pale pink. “He’d said that he was looking for you, Chat Noir. He said he didn’t want to be disturbed, and wouldn’t talk to any of us after that. We left him alone. He hadn’t attacked any of the folks around here while they went out to the field, so I thought…”

“I’ve never heard of a demon not attacking humans before.” Chat hummed, tail flicking behind him in thought. Marinette tucked herself into her coat, shivering in the draft that carried in from the hole in the barn. “Thank Plagg he hadn’t. Demons are always looking for trouble.”

“I should have told you two about him before today, but it hadn’t seemed urgent.” The farmer looked downcast, almost disappointed in himself. “All he would do was howl in the night. Probably trying to get you to respond, maybe. Kept the wolves out of the sheep pen, for sure. The sheep weren’t all that scared of him, surprisingly.”

“Crazy to think that a demon managed to help you out in the end.” Marinette pulled the little paper out of her coin purse, handing it to the farmer across the counter. She started separating out the coins needed for the purchase, grateful that the bakery owner had bought a lucky charm and was in turn paying for their own purchase. “He put up a real fight.”

“Oh, I heard it from over here. Thought an animal was dying, to be honest. I was too scared to look. I can handle animal death, but...” 

“It was pretty gruesome.” She nodded. As if their state didn’t make it obvious enough. “It was probably for the best that you hadn’t looked.”

“All bark and definitely all bite too.” Chat shuddered, pointing to the semi circle of bite marks on the juncture of his shoulder and arm. Four rows of teeth dotted his skin. “The demon’s got one  _ hell  _ of a bite.”

“Chat.”

The farmer shook his head, handing the discount back to her, the mouth behind the beard frowning hard. “Looking at all the trouble it caused you, I’d rather give you this pumpkin for free. You two look like you’ve gone through hell and back-- erm-- no offense.”

Marinette smiled gratefully. “Thanks. That’s actually really kind of you.”

Chat Noir’s grin widened to his signature cheshire size. “Now  _ that’s  _ the rat’s ass.”

_ “Chat.” _

**Author's Note:**

> Wanna follow me on tumblr? Click [here!](https://fragileizy.tumblr.com)  
> Want to join the miraculous discord server I wrote this for, and get more Demon Chat AU content? Click [here!](https://discord.gg/uzKvwFb)
> 
> Thanks for reading! Have a good and safe Halloween!
> 
> -FragileIzy


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